Health and/or nutritional status of an aquatic animal

Abstract

An aquatic animal feed product comprising a probiotic Bacillus licheniformis bacteria and the use of this product in an aquaculture of aquatic animals in order to improve the resistance of an aquatic animal towards influential conditions in the surrounding environment, such as e.g. pathogenic micro-organisms.

1 . An aquatic animal feed product comprising a probiotic  Bacillus licheniformis  bacteria.  
     
     
         2 . The aquatic animal feed product of  claim 1 , wherein the aquatic animal feed product comprises the probiotic  Bacillus licheniformis  bacteria in a concentration of at least 1×10 6  CFU/g feed.  
     
     
         3 . The aquatic animal feed product of  claim 1 , wherein the product comprises a mixture of probiotic  Bacillus licheniformis  bacteria and probiotic  Bacillus subtilis  bacteria.  
     
     
         4 . The aquatic animal feed product of  claim 1 , which, when used for feeding an aquaculture of rainbow trout, the aquatic animal feed product is capable of providing at least about a 2% increase in relative survival rate of the rainbow trout as compared to a control group fed the equivalent animal feed product lacking probiotic  Bacillus licheniformis  bacteria, when the rainbow trout are challenged with pathogenic  Yersinia ruckeri.    
     
     
         5 . A method of performing aquaculture of aquatic animals wherein the aquatic animals are in contact with an aquatic animal feed product comprising a probiotic  Bacillus licheniformis  bacteria of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the aquatic animals are in contact with an amount of aquatic animal feed product that corresponds to from about 0.5% to about 10% of the total biomass of the aquatic animals of the aquaculture.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the aquatic animals are finfish.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the finfish include salmonid species including Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) and rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ).  
     
     
         9 . A method for feeding an aquatic animal present in an aquaculture comprising feeding the aquatic animal with an aquatic animal feed product comprising a probiotic  Bacillus licheniformis  bacteria of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the aquatic animal is a finfish.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the finfish include salmonid species including Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) and rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ).  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the  Bacillus licheniformis  is present in a concentration of from about 35% to about 65%, and the  Bacillus subtilis  is present in a concentration of from about 35% to about 65%, wherein the combination of the concentrations of the two probiotic microorganisms equals 100%  
     
     
         13 . The method of claims  5  or  9 , wherein the aquatic animal is an ornamental fish.